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Edutainment can be the portal to real learning. It's just like a mediocre reader can turn into a real reader once they find an author/genre that they love. I saw that first hand with my kids. I remember my youngest son who was reading goosebumps and magic treehouse in third grade, but not really interested. The newest Harry Potter movie came out and he wanted to watch it but I told him he had to read the book first. That was the turning point in his reading - he read the first three books in a short period of time and never looked back.
Haven't children's books been "edutainment" forever? Think Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, all the Little House books, Winnie the Pooh, etc., etc., etc. Or the huge number of historical novels for children (Robert Louis Stevenson, John R. Tunis, and so on.)
Haven't children's books been "edutainment" forever? Think Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, all the Little House books, Winnie the Pooh, etc., etc., etc. Or the huge number of historical novels for children (Robert Louis Stevenson, John R. Tunis, and so on.)
Absolutely. Finding what hits the spot is the goal, right? How many people have had a science class with the Van de Graaff generator that makes your hair stand on end? Or maybe did an egg drop with the egg contained in different structures? Is that edutainment or just good teaching?
It’s a poor substitute for discipline
Which teaches that which is good for you is not always fun
Sometimes you eat the spinach because mommy says so
Unfortunately we live in an era where young people demand to know "why?". Our building principal even mentioned this going into the previous school year that the days of "because I said so" are over.
This is similar to my observations about the "everyone gets a trophy" generation. I haven't actually seen much impact on the kids but rather the parents of said generation. Like my daughter, who was a member of the "trophy" generation, told me when she was an early teen. "Yes, sure, I liked getting a trophy. Then I turned six." Her point was the kids knew the trophies were meaning less. She had a stack of them in the bottom of the closet. Honestly she, and most of the other kids I knew, much preferred when they won a tournament to get a printed tee shirt, or one tournament gave out stocking caps with their names which they wore until they outgrew them. But even the kids as young as six knew the difference between a trophy they earned and one they were just given.
The irony of the everyone gets a trophy generation is the same adults who complain about it are the ones who are encouraging the concept. I see way too many adults / parents in my age group (late 30s / early 40s) who constantly complain about this trophy for all mentality now a days but are the same ones who coach the little league teams and guess what happens at their end of season awards nights???? yep, everyone gets a trophy.
I think the everyone gets a trophy generation has / had less to do with the kids and their mental well being and more so to do with the adults (their parents) looking at the trophy as less validation of their kids abilities and more to do with themselves as a parent of a kid who got a trophy.
Too many parents view the award as a statement of their abilities as a parent and less about the abilities of the child.
No better place to look than on the back of a suburban families vehicle. They have the decals of dad, mom, kids, dog, cat, etc.... as a signal that hey we made it, did it the right way, etc.....
I’d say that it largely depends on what the intention behind the education is. Edutainment can act as a springboard that can be used to motivate individuals to acquire greater knowledge, but can never be a full substitute.
Watching the Magic School Bus is a great way to get kids interested in exploring scientific concepts, however they aren’t likely to learn more beyond basic facts by watching it. The same could be said about edutainment in the form of video games, they are fun for kids, but ultimately lose their value when one becomes an adolescent. Incidentally, if you look carefully, you’ll notice that most edutainment products are targeted at elementary school kids.
If one wishes to truly learn about a certain topic, then they need to research it academically. In the case of something like science, that often involves divulging into complex concepts supported by advanced mathematics. That’s not something you’ll find in edutainment, as the primary purpose is to entertain the target audience.
Agreed. I look as edutainment as the "gateway drug" to get kids interested in whatever it is we're learning about that day / week / unit.
This does not seem to be extending the attention spans, applied creativity, and artistic expression if it's prime audience... but it could.
I prefer to use radio / audio edutainment (dramatized stories / audio documentary and science,) so the attendee is still mindfully engaged in the experience. TV / video tends to fill in too many gaps and becomes passive entertainment.
I would imagine the teachers could explain how they fill the attention spans of youth. Kids are generally no longer able to sit through a Disney movie from the 1960-1970's that evolves a story line and a comprehensive need to pay attention.
On with the action.
One thing I've noticed over the years (year number 17 in the classroom) is kids can no longer make it through a full length movie in the classroom. Their attention spans on measured in seconds due to snapchat, tiktok, etc... even youtube clips of over 2-3 minutes can lose them unless its scandalous or controversial in some way.
When I was getting my AP US History certification I had a professor tell us that the days of an amazing lecturer being able to captivate a room full of kids, even college kids, is basically over. Even the best lecturer would find it difficult to keep kids involved in what they were talking about.
When they have the chance to go to medical school, law school, STEM graduate school,... they will face the very keen competition and very high elimination rates. I wonder how they change the "everyone is the best" mentality.
I was a SAHM. I was pretty hands on. We played, we read books, we colored and all that jazz. But there were times were I needed to get stuff done (cooking, laundry) and she was allowed to watch various educational shows when I had things to do.
I can tell you that her vocabulary jumped from watching those shows. You don't think about discussing 'a day at the beach' when it's December and 10 degrees outside, or 'name the parts of a flower' when it's months till blooming season. And that drove interests. We'd go to the library and she would ask for a book on flowers. The shows would introduce concepts that were not a part of our day to day lives - like Sesame Street was set in a big city, we lived in a subdivision. So there would be questions, too, about why we don't have 'X' thing where we live.
It's no substitute for spending time with your kids. Decent programs have value. But there's lots of crap, too.
When they have the chance to go to medical school, law school, STEM graduate school,... they will face the very keen competition and very high elimination rates. I wonder how they change the "everyone is the best" mentality.
STEM graduate school was noticeably easier than STEM undergraduate school. (This is anecdotal for the USA, comparing schools in the top 10/20).
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